Democrats eye AI crackdown with polls pointing to a congressional flip

Democrats enter the final stretch of the US midterm campaign with polling that favors them retaking at least one chamber of Congress, and according to The Verge, they are preparing to make oversight of the AI industry a central use of that power.

Gavels would bring real oversight power

Control of either chamber would return committee chairmanships to Democrats, allowing them to set hearing agendas, call AI executives to testify and demand documents describing how companies operate. The Verge reports that senior Democrats on key committees have already signaled plans to press the industry on tax credits connected to data center construction and on recent hacking incidents.

President Donald Trump has opposed most AI regulation in favor of an accelerationist posture, but public polling shows Americans are broadly concerned about how the technology will affect jobs, education and other parts of life, The Verge notes. Data center development has already proven politically charged, drawing residents from across the political spectrum to packed local meetings.

A campaign storyline, not just an issue

Strategists quoted by The Verge argue the politics remain unsettled. Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic strategist who previously ran a tech accountability advocacy group, calls AI "a hundred percent ready for the taking" while cautioning that the question of whether Democrats can seize the opportunity "remains open."

Rob Flaherty, a former deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, says AI caught many lawmakers off guard because they did not understand it or feared industry money, but believes "there will be immense profit to whoever can speak to the world that we're moving into at a volume that voters can hear and can feel."

Flaherty and Karthik Ganapathy recently launched a super PAC, Tomorrow Together, which opened a $4 million ad campaign in battleground House races attacking Republican candidates as out of touch on AI, citing issues such as children's online safety and data centers. The group is also looking ahead to the 2028 presidential election as a chance to refine Democratic messaging. Flaherty frames AI less as a policy checklist than a narrative about "politicians getting bought off by industry" and voters being made to foot the bill while others get rich. He warns that Democrats risk ceding ground if they settle for small ideas like community college retraining.

Industry money and buyer's remorse

Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC backed by Marc Andreessen, had spent nearly $45 million over roughly a year as of June and still held about $31 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings cited by The Verge. Democratic donor and venture capitalist Ron Conway now regrets funding the group, according to Jay Carney, a former Obama press secretary who now runs communications for Conway's fund and relayed the regret to Politico.

Polling conducted by Flaherty's group, as reported by The Verge, found that sweeping bans on state-level AI regulation, a push associated with Trump and congressional Republicans, are even more broadly unpopular than data centers themselves.

Governors and Republicans shifting ground

Some centrist Democratic governors have moved as well. California's Gavin Newsom issued an executive order aimed at creating an AI "kill switch" after previously vetoing legislation with similar aims, and Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro reversed his position on data centers. A few Republicans, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Josh Hawley, have carved out more skeptical approaches, but Lehrich argues Trump's embrace of the industry is a liability, saying he cannot imagine "a bigger political gift."

What a crackdown could include

A broader Democratic regulatory agenda, as sketched by The Verge, might involve embedding independent researchers inside frontier labs, requiring safety checks before deployment, and increasing company liability for harms to children or for discrimination against workers and housing applicants. Lawmakers could also consider making AI companies help pay for job displacement and other impacts on people's lives. Early congressional proposals have yet to gain broad consensus, and AI still ranks well below the economy as a reason voters go to the polls.

Why it matters

A change in congressional control would convert vague Democratic interest in AI accountability into concrete institutional power: hearings, subpoenas and document demands aimed at some of the country's most valuable companies. For the AI industry, the currently permissive federal environment could give way to sustained scrutiny, with data centers, safety practices and market power all in scope. The direction and intensity of that oversight is genuinely up for grabs, but the midterms may largely determine whether and how Washington regulates AI at all, or whether the industry keeps setting its own terms while states fill the gap.